For the kids

A little boy looked so sad for days, and was approached by his teacher when he was about to be picked up by his grandad after school. The teacher was worried, the boy had lost weight and was not his usual chirpy self, and asked him if he was ill - he replied, with tears pouring, "I missed my daddy so much!"

That boy is our son, Muhammad Abdurrahman, and I learnt this a couple of weeks ago from my mom's cousin (my office mate), whose little daughter is my son's school mate.  Not a good thing to share in the office, as I really had a hard time fighting back tears.

My wife used to bring the kids out for good meal, mostly during weekends. During my recovery, the 'outing' was merely "reaaaaalllllly healthy food" (read: porridge, soups etc) at home.  I promised my wife and the kids though, that I'd treat them to a very sumptuous meal when I got better.

Alhamdulillah, my health improved and I started working about 3 weeks ago (2 weeks in the mornings only).  And as promised to the kids, we drove across the border to Miri and treated them to a great dinner at Secret Recipe a week before last. 

We've brought Muhammad to the Secret Recipes in KL and Singapore, and he loved the lamb shank, prawn macaroni and that giant curry puff (I can't remember what its called). So we ordered the giant curry puff for Muhammad (2 piece!), I had my lambshank (he ate a quarter of it), Princess Iman had a macaroni (Muhammad ate half) and my dad in law had a caribbean style fish fillet (Muhammad ate a quarter). My dear wife had a laksa, and guess what, Muhammad had a few slurps hahah - talk about APPETITE! The pictures are shown below, and what's so great about the meal is its very good value for money - from where we come from. At RM160, it is roughly B$60 and for a meal for 5 including drinks, that's great value.

"Daddy, can I order Oreo Milshake?"

"This one here?"

"Thanks Dad! I love you!"

Admiring the cakes - pity we're full at the end, otherwise wouldn't have mind to have a couple of cakes for desert.

Daddy's lamb shank... oh no, my mouth waters as I am writing this!

Dad's caribbean style fish fillet

Princess Iman's macaroni

And Muhammad enjoying his giant puff!

For photo enthusiasts looking for reviews on Canon 450D, these shots are taken with no flash, ISO1600 and speed 1/13 (of course, with IS kit lens)

MRI & Blood Test

MRI & Blood test result were out: MRI was clear, nothing jumps out from the images and the liver function test has improved, although still higher than the normal.

Next Monday will be the appointment with my neurologist - lets hope all is ok. I am still a bit tired towards the later part of the day, and doctors I have seen kept on reminding that I need to regain my stamina - I actually did, walked laps around the compound of our house for the past couple of weeks, but lately couldn't do much as the hazy weather is back - believe the extreme temperature is to blame:

This was taken after the Friday prayer today. Average temperature was usually around 32 - 34 deg C, but today, it showed a whopping 38.5 deg C.  That's HOT!

Lucky?

I've met one neurologist and two doctors since my episode and the very mention of encephalitis made them give me this smile and said I was lucky.

Maybe I am, but I am grateful to Allah for 'extending' my life, and for the prayers/wishes by my families and friends/colleagues of different faiths. 

To date, I have done MRI (results not out yet) but there is nothing else that the doctor could recommend, as they say it would be intrusive to my system. My main worry is recurrence of the encephalitis, but I was quite relieved having read the following:

A common concern following encephalitis is an apparent return of symptoms. Recurrence of encephalitis is extremely rare and the most likely cause is an overload of repaired neural networks. These repaired networks may work fine under optimal conditions but under stress they can fail. “Stress” may be physical stress such as tiredness or too much physical exertion; emotional stress such as a row within the family or moving house; or it can be as a result of fighting an infection. If stress is unavoidable consider some of the complementary therapies or a change of lifestyle. - taken from: http://www.encephalitis.info/recovery/BuildBrain.html

As it stated, I need to ensure that I do not expose myself to stress - something I have been managing well so far (except for screaming kids and throat infection last week). So far so good. Alhamdulillah. 

Till my next update with the MRI result, take care and be happy and safe.

Gembo @ Azmi

ICU pics

I got the following pictures from my sis, during my days in ICU KB and RIPAS.

Day 1 - 2pm at KB ICU. 6 hours into my coma.

Day 5 - 7pm at RIPAS ICU. Few hours after coming out of coma.